Allen Iverson's Next Step: Retirement

Yes, it may be time for the future Hall-Of-Famer to hang it up for good. With the past couple years, complaining about coming off the bench, and wanting a starting role has made Allen Iverson a man no team wants to gamble with.

With his early complaints and disappearance from Memphis this season, and fighting for a starting position over Rip Hamilton in Detroit last season and being let loose by Joe Dumars, Iverson has proven he will not accept a bench role.

Iverson is once again a free agent and tried to go to the Knicks, but the GM felt he would clash with the rebuilding process the Knicks are trying to go through (that mainly being hopes of capturing LeBron, but that is a different story).

Iverson has had a remarkable career, and is a definite future Hall-Of-Famer.

After two seasons at Georgetown, Iverson was the No. 1 draft pick selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996. In that year he won Rookie of the year.

In his 10 years with the Sixers, he won the league MVP in the 200-2001 season, averaging 31.1 points per game and was a starter for the 2001 NBA All Star team.

He led the Sixers to a 56-26 record that season, and won his second NBA scoring title. Iverson then led the Sixers to the NBA finals against the Lakers, (their first appearance since 1983) but could not pull it off against the Lakers.

Iverson feuded with Larry Brown and the Sixers in 2002 after losing in the first round in the '02 playoffs. Larry Brown mentioned how Iverson had missed many practices.

Iverson also played under Larry Brown in the 2004 United States Olympic basketball team.

In 2005-2006 Iverson averaged a career high of 33.7 points per game and started having conflicts with the Sixers. On Dec. 8, 2006, he demanded a trade from the Sixers after his 10 years there.

On Dec. 19, 2006, he was acquired by the Denver Nuggets. From there, the Nuggets had the number one scorer in the NBA being Carmelo Anthony, and the No. 2 leading scorer being Allen Iverson. Iverson averaged 24.8 points per game for the remainder of that season.

Iverson played alongside Carmelo until 2008 where he was traded to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups in November. Iverson didn't have a good season with the Pistons, and complained for a starting role over Rip Hamilton and refused to play a sixth man role.

He ended up starting 50 games, averaging 17.4 points per game. Things got hot towards the end of the season, and he did not attend the playoffs with the Detroit Pistons.

From there, he was signed by Memphis as a free agent on Sept. 10, 2009, for a one-year contract.

He averaged 12.3 points per game, and left the team on Nov. 7, 2009, for "personal reasons." It was then on Nov. 16, 2009, Memphis had reported they had terminated Iverson's contract.

Overall in Iverson's career he has put up some great numbers. During his career he averaged 27 points per game, around 6 assists per game, and around 2 steals per game. He put up an impressive 24,020 points, 3,319 rebounds, and 5,522 assists.

Even though I am sure Allen Iverson has a lot of playing time in him, I feel he will accept nothing more than a starting role that he won't get.

If he can come to his senses, and accept a bench role, and try to go for something he has never gotten in his career, which is a championship ring, then retirement isn't the answer.

But it seems as though he wants to be the star player of every team, which won't be the answer anymore.

I feel if that's what you want to be, it should be time to hang it up. You had a great career.

It's too bad he didn't win a ring, but Iverson will be one of the most memorable players in NBA history.